For five years from October 2007 I joked that I thought that I might be in a coma in a Tripoli hospital. This wasn’t a random idea; I had hit my head on a trip to Libya. In reality I didn’t need urgent medical care though I suffered post-concussion syndrome for some time afterwards, but so much of my life during those five years was surreal that only the belief none of it was real made any sense.

I have been reminded of this more recently as discussions about AI become more mainstream. There are many who believe that it is only a matter of time before virtual reality becomes undistinguishable from the real thing. There are a few who believe this has already happened and that we are all already living in a simulation (a la The Matrix).

Are we living in a simulated universe? Here's what scientists say. (nbcnews.com)

When I say “we” of course I don’t necessarily mean you. For whilst the simulation could be a shared virtual reality, as if a group of unknown beings had just put their headsets on and were avatars in our own Existence, it equally could be personal and everyone else just a fictional projection. You, dear reader, are a figment of my programming.

But, what has this got to do with astrology, you ask?

Well, people are always keen to question astrology. Many claim it has no foundation, but even those who are prepared to accept its validity are desperate to know how it works. Much has been written by others on the theories, both causative and correlational. Personally I subscribe to the correlation argument but I am not wedded to it and so don’t wish to debate the pros and cons of either here. This is not about the how, or even about the whether; it is about the wider question- what do we really know and can we really influence anything at all?

More specifically, it brings us to the subject of self-fulfilling action and whether our thoughts can influence our futures.

This is not a remotely radical idea. It has been widely held by the human race for millennia but tied to their belief in gods and prayer to those gods. If you believe and you pray, the god will grant you the answer to your prayers.  And vice-versa, if you don’t have enough faith in that god, then it won’t oblige you[i]. 

Sounds familiar? Of course it does: it is also the underlying premise of the Secret/Law of Attraction. They just cut out the middle men/women/higher beings.

It is also the premise of the more general attitude of positive thinking and its medical corollaries, the placebo effect and the studies that show that thoughts ( happy or sad, angry or forgiving) can create bodily changes. All we need to do is believe and we will get better………….. or die. The choice is yours.

Except the placebo effect doesn’t work in 100% of cases, it is merely statistically significant in many studies. It certainly didn’t work for me recently.

I suffer chronic migraines[ii], sometimes up to 25 days in a month and when medical consultation failed to come up with anything other than paracetamol I took matters into my own hands and went for acupuncture. I was convinced that this would, if not entirely cure the migraines, make a radical and noticeable difference. The practitioner assured me that such a noticeable change should be forthcoming after 3-4 sessions. It wasn’t. I did perceive some change in my sleeping patterns so I am not knocking acupuncture in general, but for my migraines, nothing much at all.

So for me there was no placebo, even though I was totally on board with the potential cure.  

Or was I? There is no way of measuring how complete ones faith is in something is. Perhaps some little corner of my brain sabotaged the whole thing with a sliver of doubt or, at the very least, that horror of all gods everywhere, an open mind.

And therein lies the problem, I truly believe that I had faith, but no-one can prove it and it follows they can’t prove whether the treatment would have worked had I possessed that faith.

The same applies to religion, laws of attraction, positive thinking et al.  So we find ourselves no further forward in deciding whether our lives are determined by our thoughts or not.

It does, however, take us right back to the astrology question.

After all, the one thing that could unite astrological believers and non-believers is the possibility that the Universe is just a dream or simulation or even a “creation” in which our thoughts (or rather the thoughts of our programmer or higher being) determine our outcomes. Non- believers would be correct that astrological influence was not real because, for them, there would be no relationship between planetary activity and their lives and believers would be vindicated because, for them, the correlation between planetary positions and events would indeed hold because that would be the way they had been made.

It is, of course,  a mind boggling idea for which there can be no answer within our lifetimes.

But there is one lesson we can learn in this life, and that is one of humility. For as long as we are unable to be 100% sure of what lies behind our existence, we cannot be sure that our reality has any substance separate from our beliefs at all. Thus those of us who accept astrology works must bear in mind that perhaps it works only for us; those who consider it nonsense should be aware that their programmer might just have caused them to miss out on an excellent contrivance.

What do you think?

Do you think?

Do you?

[i] Of course sometimes the god will chose not to grant your wishes, but obviously she has a very good reason for doing so and you will be rewarded in other ways later (probably much, much, later)

[ii] For those that are curious;  I had occasional migraines these before the head injury but they have changed since though I have no idea if the injury was responsible, or hormones, or just aging.